One of the most common illnesses is obesity. Many diseases are caused by or exacerbated by obesity, particularly in the western world, and these illnesses may be accompanied by physical and psychological disabilities. Surgical methods for controlling weight initially involved gastric stapling in various forms, which, over a prolonged period, resulted in major weight reduction. Because of the invasiveness of this type of surgery, and the irreversibility of it, the gastric stapling surgical technique was not widely accepted. These surgical procedures required a laparotomy which carried the risk of morbidity and death. Additionally, the gastric stapling technique required that the setting of the gastric restriction be initially set correctly because of the inability of the surgeon to modify the degree of restriction after the operation was performed. To overcome this difficulty, adjustable gastric banding was introduced which utilized an inflatable balloon carried by a band that could be placed around the stomach by an open operation or laparoscopically. The later technique has become the preferred surgical technique because of the reduced invasiveness of the operation. The degree of gastric restriction after placement of the band around the stomach immediately below the gastroesophageal junction was controlled by inflating an encircling balloon which was sealingly carried on the inner surface of the band; however, the bands of the prior art created the gastric restriction by annularly or hoop compressing the stomach. A possible consequence of annular stress is the inducement of erosion that permitted the band to go into the bowel thereby causing bleeding, infection, and even death.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a stomach plication device that avoids annular stress, that utilizes inflatable members to prolong the life of the plication device, that is laparoscopically implantable, avoids erosion, and is adjustable to control the gastric restriction stoma after the operation is completed. It would also be desirable to provide such a device that reduces and enlarges the stoma upon distention or contraction of the proximal stomach where the device is self-adjusting in response to distention and contraction.